Find what's owed to you; unclaimed property event Saturday

BATON ROUGE - The state says it has a bunch of money it wants to give back to Louisiana residents.

The Louisiana Department of the Treasury and AARP are offering a free shredding event from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at Whole Foods in Baton Rouge. A number of staff members will be on hand to help people check to see if they have unclaimed property.

Anyone can check to see if they have unclaimed property in their state. Louisiana residents can go latreasury.com or click here to see if they have any property they can claim.

State Treasurer John Schroder says the unclaimed property adds up and more comes in every day.

"The state has about $850 million, there's probably about $120 million just in the East Baton Rouge region," said Schroder. "The hard thing is getting people to understand that this is real, it's not fake."

The money comes to the department a few different ways including insurance, deposits, dividends or inheritance. The law says if the person can't be found the money must be turned over to the state, which is why it's a good idea to keep your address up to date.